Usually not so common with me. But this time I have been under the ice since the weekend. Actually it started Friday but I managed to get through the weekend pretty okay.

And today I tried getting back to work. Got up, showered, did all the morning things, went out the door and then I realised I was not going to be able to do much with this day either so back in bed now. until Sunday night when I was feeling really feverish.

Thanks for modern tech so you can stay up to date with what is happening anyway, both at work and at home.

The common cold is often caused by one or more rhinovirus infecting the upper respiratory tract. Sometimes the symptoms are similar but not as severe as that of common influenzas.

Virus replication starts from 2 to 6 hours after contact and symptoms generally occur between 2 to 5 days after infection. However in some cases symtoms may even start the same day. Rhinovirus are most infectious the first three days after symptoms have started when people generally should avoid contact as much as possible to avoid spreading the cold.

Enter the stockholm underground. A superior way of making contact with rhinoviruses this time of year.

I’m back to bed now.

As usual the first run after a down-period was terrible, but I soon found my pace back and the condition is growing on me and I managed after just 4 runds to do a 5 km run again. Which is the goal distance of the C25k programme of course. I feel great but need more time to really get into the habit. They say that the workout habit needs about 5 weeks to form so I need to keep doing this.

The really good things is that the running at the gym from work is not bad at all and with the kind of temperatures that we are having and the treacherous ice and snow out there, trying to run trails in these conditions will probably just end with me needing a hip replacement or something, better to stay indoor another couple of months.

The treadmill actually interfaces with my el cheapo pulse watch. Not bad for a 59 SEK watch and HRM band actually, and that’s great. I can set a time, a speed and a target heart rate and the machine will then adjust inclination to achieve the target heart rate, all I need to do is to keep running the distance. When the time is upp there is a cooldown period.

My feet are a little sore after each workout but that’s just to be expected, I’ve gone all “tenderfoot” again after the break from my workout routine. Back on the bandwagon again is the melody.

Speaking of which, I have designed a Spotify playlist for 30 min running with warmup and cooldown which will be useful both in the gym and in the woods when that day comes. Another playlist for 45 min running and so on will be added.

Most of these songs have a really high bpm to get your tempo and step cadence up to close of 180 steps a minute but they vary a little which your running also should.

• WARMUP: Clint Eastwood – Gorillaz
• RUN: Born to Boogie – Hank Williams Jr.
• RUN: Vaterland – Melotron
• RUN: Up Tempo – Leo Kottke
• RUN: Rocka På – Markoolio
• RUN: Bloodshot Eyes – Pat Benatar
• RUN: Breakthru – Queen
• RUN: Shame, Shame, Shame – Aerosmith
• RUN: Lakeside Drive – Nitzer Ebb
• COOLDOWN: Jamo – Cooldown Mix – Skyway

Warmup: 5:43, running 30:00, cooldown 7:09, total 42.9 minutes

And of course, here is the spotify link. Load your mobile spotify client up, select to use offline for the playlist and then keep running! Off-line mode is great since it does not drain your battery as fast and you can keep running even if your 3G coverages is not so good where you are running.

I’d love more tips on good running songs!

Bonus is that the machine can read my pulse belt so it means I can do really good pulse training without effort, it is really easy to regulate speed and incline on the machine whilst running so you can keep the pulse in the zone all the time.

Doing round of about 3.5 km in 30 mins at the moment, will set out to increase over time up to 5 km and my goal is still to run “Midnattsloppet” in August which is a 10 km run.

A summary of each week’s training will be posted. I am aiming for three runs with one day of rest between them and then two days of rest in the weekend. Right now the runs will be the same all three but I will later divide them into shorter runs with intervals for speed, longer runs with slow tempo for distance and recovery runs.

I will go down to the gym at work on monday and see if there is some way to start jogging again. Outdoors is just too slippery right now although the cold is nit si much a problem for me.

Wish me luck…

I then had muscle pains for a couple of days and then the christmas party time set in full fledged! I had no less than three christmas parties to attend to this year, from work, with friends and again this weekend with more friends. It has been fantastic in every way and then finally the snow came as well. It now does look like christmas but it has not done me well in the exercise scheme, the roads are perilous to run now but since it is close to christmas I will see if I may sneak down into the exercise gym at work and find a cross trainer or something similar to work out on.

I mean it, I need to get more exercise and the weather and road conditions are just not really that fit for running right now. Fortunately snow rarely lasts that long here in Stockholm, it will be fine for running in no time.

Apart from that life just got in the way a lot training wise and I managed to squeeze in some long walks. All in all a not so good week but I will do better.

But, I did another 4 km today and it felt pretty good. My usual track around the Slammertorp cottage (2 laps on the easy path) and the time was about 8:30 min/km so not bad for not having been out much the last couple of weeks.

Gonna do better now, I promise. Feet feels nice tonight actually.

Did two runs this week, both of them were horrible, the first was a 4 km run at an extremely low pace, 9:15 min/km and today I did another one at 8:40 min/km but that was only a 3 km run. My body really did not want to run today so it was all in my mind really. I had set out to do 4 km today as well but my body refused to do more than 2. So we reached a kind of compromise on 3 km. Not that good really but I think it is going the right way slowly. Next week it will start feel better I’m sure.

And it did. I managed to get around 2 laps of my usual track and it took 37 minutes to complete 4 km. However even if the tempo of 9:15/km is just a sliver better than walking real fast, I actually did it. I tried to keep my pulse around 160-165, I have found it gives me the best burn workout I can get. At this heart rater I can keep going for some time without stopping and it gives me a good workout with plenty of sweat.

Today it was difficult to keep that rater even with the really slow running. On the second lap it started to creep up beyond 170 bpm and several parts of the track was done around 170-175 bpm rather than the 160-165 that was my goal.

So definitely I have lost condition. I have also gained weight these four weeks but that is about to come right off again as I start running more regularly so I am not too worried about that right now. And condition comes rather fast, especially when you start low

Even though my 7 km run looks distant right now I am sure that in 3-4 weeks time I might be able to repeat it if my health stays okay, that is.

Then I’ll go jogging again!

By Saturday night I was covered in urticaria all over my head and face, looking like something straight out of a 1950ies creature feature movie. Not a pretty sight. And it hurt — and the itching is hard to describe. Can’t give in to it though, that just make things bleed and scar.  I have had a rough night now but I have woke up feeling a little better actually. This might be because the human body produce it’s own cortisone in the morning or … perhaps I am slowly getting better.

I even played with the thought of putting a photograph of my horrible looks on my home page but then decided against it, the world might not be ready for that kind of disfigurement yet.

My better half Jeanette is having the flu and I believe that is what onset it this time for me as well. She’s feverish and coghy and tired and have all the classic symptoms. Even though I probably had a bit of that (last night my throat was a little sore) I think I got off the flu easy. Let’s hope this leads to something good, like immunization to A(H1N1) better known as the bacon plague.

My hands still hut a bit and I still don’t dare that perhaps I will now start to get better because I know when nightfall comes and cortisone in the body is switched to melatonine instead then these kinds of rashes usually gets worse. I go from cold sweats to hot spells regularly still.

And now the time has passed enough that I no longer longingly pass my sneakers in the hallway. I have forgotten the joy of running. I need to nurture the addiction once more and learn how to start slow. Not that I think I have lost everything but I believe there will be a couple of weeks of build-up before I can get back to where I was.

If I get better now…

I miss the running, my shoes are calling to me when I pass them by on my way out through the door. Tomorrow I am missing my sixth scheduled run in a row but I am not too worried about it.